An extra £625,000 has been allocated to empower communities to tackle gang and knife crime by the Mayor of London.

The additional funding sees total spending on knife and gang crime projects up to £7 million as Sadiq Khan calls on the government to do more.

The new knife crime strategy comes after a rise in knife related casualties and fatalities among young people in the last few months, with 24 young people below the age of 25 dying so far this year.

The funding will go towards new measures including a targeted community sentence requirement for those convicted of knife crimes, a more intelligence-led approach to stop and search and judgement training for officers who carry it out.

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Schools in knife crime hostpots will receive metal detecting knife wands and educational toolkits, while McDonalds and KFC have signed up to be part of the City Safe Havens scheme, offering safe places for anyone under attack.

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Latest from City Hall

"And we need to do more to educate young people around the dangers of carrying knives if we are to cut injuries and deaths.

“My new strategy brings together many organisations, groups, communities and individuals and their expertise and passion to help solve this problem.

"This cannot, and must not, be left just to the police to tackle – only by all agencies across London working together can we root out the scourge of knife crime.

"Young Londoners have lost tens of millions of pounds in funding for youth services since 2011 and this simply has to stop.

"The only way we can truly beat the scourge of knife crime on our streets is by properly funding youth services. The government needs to step up, reverse these cuts and help provide the services we need to tackle knife crime.

“We must not and we will not give up on our young people. We are working to provide them with the skills, the resources and the confidence they need to turn away from knives and lead the life they deserve in our city.”

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